Sculpture Šaulys (Archer) was presented to Simona Krupeckaite

 The best Lithuanian athletes of 2009 and their coaches

The best Lithuanian athletes of 2009 and their coaches were honoured and awarded at the large studio of Lithuanian TV on 8 January. Simona Krupeckaite, world champion and record-holder in track cycling was elected as the best Lithuanian athlete. Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutiene presented the best athlete of the year with a traditional LNOC prize Stanislovas Kuzma's sculpture Šaulys (Archer). A prize of sponsors - a cheque of 50'000 LTL - was presented by Gedvydas Vainauskas, editor-in-chief of daily Lietuvos Rytas, and Antanas Muraška, general manager of loterry enterprise Olifeja.

Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutiene delivered a welcoming speech. A congratulatory speech of the Head of State Dalia Grybauskaite was read at the ceremony.

At a traditional, the best athlete, poll organised by LNOC, lottery enterprise Olifeja and daily newspaper Lietuvos Rytas, the swimmer Giedrius Titenis was a second place winner and the discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna ranked third. LNOC and Department of Physical Education and Sport (DPES) prizes were awarded to all three laureates and also to their coaches Dimitrijus Leopoldas, Žilvinas Ovsiukas and masseur Zigmantas Živatkauskas.

Arturas Poviliunas, president of LNOC and Ritas Vaiginas, interim general manager of DPES awarded the athletes with a sculpture entitled Nike and the coaches with special DPES prizes. G.Titenis and V.Alekna also received portable computers from Andris Pastors, head of Baltic region of ACER company.

The best team of 2009 was elected basketball equipe „Lietuvos Rytas".